bcspace wrote:I don't see anything in the quotes you provided to indicate this. I think your premise is therefore, faulty.
Are you and will sharing the same crackpipe? Dats sum goood sh!t you got there.
Feel free to quote and highlight what indicates that Joseph Smith said the first people in America were the Jaredites.
Let's see. An angel appears to Smith, and Smith gives the following account of what happened then:
I was also informed concerning the aboriginal inhabitants of this country and shown who they were, and from whence they came; a brief sketch of their origin, progress, civilization, laws, governments, of their righteousness and iniquity, and the blessings of God being finally withdrawn from them as a people, was made known unto me; ...
So as a result of his conversation he knows who the aboriginal inhabitants were, their origin, where they came from, and what happened to them later.
To normal speakers of the English language, especially those acquainted with the Latin etymology of the word, 'aboriginal' means the people who have been there 'from the start',
ab origine, meaning in practice since long before the arrival of settlers of European stock like those from whom Smith was descended. Since 'this country' is America for Joseph Smith, that means the angel told him who 'the first people in America' were.
Then Smith says:
I was also told where were deposited some plates on which were engraven an abridgment of the records of the ancient Prophets that had existed on this continent.
So the angel, who has just told him all about the first settlers in America, and all that happened up to the time when 'the blessings of God were withdrawn from them' tells him where to find some gold plates with ancient records from the history of 'this continent'.
(OK so far? Or is it at this point that you will propose to start reading words in some special restricted sense to protect yourself from the conclusions that any normal reader would draw?)
Now what is in those records?
In this important and interesting book the history of ancient America is unfolded, from its first settlement
so this stuff is going to cover the same ground as the angel's history lesson, right from the origins of the aborigines.
And at no point does Smith ever suggest that the angel's account and that of the Book of Mormon (which the angel told him how to find) are in any way at odds with one another. Had they been, that would have been astounding, since the 'angel' is surely Moroni, who can be assumed to know exactly what was in the plates that he had himself hidden.
Smith says the Book of Mormon story, like the angel's account, tells us about the people who got to America first. These people were:
a colony that came from the Tower of Babel, at the confusion of languages
Since he is talking about the Book of Mormon, we can identify these people as the Jaredites (an identification that Smith shortly afterwards confirms) According to Smith, the account on the plates continues
to the beginning of the fifth century of the Christian Era.
But were the Jaredites the only inhabitants before the coming of Europeans? No:
We are informed by these records that America in ancient times has been inhabited by two distinct races of people. The first were called Jaredites, and came directly from the Tower of Babel. The second race came directly from the city of Jerusalem, about six hundred years before Christ. They were principally Israelites, of the descendants of Joseph. The Jaredites were destroyed about the time that the Israelites came from Jerusalem, who succeeded them in the inheritance of the country. The principal nation of the second race fell in battle towards the close of the fourth century. The remnant are the Indians that now inhabit this country.
So Smith knows of only two races that have inhabited the country before his time. Those responsible for the 'first settlement' were the Jaredites, who were eventually destroyed. The rest were clearly (following the Book of Mormon) the descendants of Nephi's party, whose 'principal nation' (from the Book of Mormon , the Nephites) were wiped out by (from the Book of Mormon) the other nation, the Lamanites, at which point, as the Book of Mormon tells us, consistent with the angel's account, "the blessings of God [were] finally withdrawn from them as a people". The Lamanite 'remnant' are the Indians.
I just don't see:
(a) Where the doubt comes from about the Jaredites being the first people in America. Heck, it was the Jaredites who were, according to Smith, responsible for the 'first settlement'. He had two sources for that fact, one the Book of Mormon and the other the account by the angel, which included, he says information on the origins of the aborigines. There is no sign that Smith felt his sources were inconsistent - which would have been very remarkable, given the almost certain identification of the angel with Moroni, the last premodern person to possess and read the Book of Mormon.
(b) Why bcspace would find uncongenial the very obvious conclusion that Smith believed and stated that the Jaredites were the first people in America.